In his speeches to the Fine Gael faithful, Leo Varadkar likes to emphasise how he'll be a leader for every part of the country "from Castleknock to Clondalkin and from Dungarvan to Doohoma".

The diversity of the locations he speaks about - the suburbs of Dublin, a large urban town in the south-east and a village on the Atlantic coast - is worth keeping in mind when considering the difference between the property tax paid by the residents of these areas.

Calculated solely on the market value of the house, the Dublin commuters would pay substantially more than the Waterford townies, who in turn would pay more than the residents of rural Mayo.

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